The return moved for by Sir John Hall showing the prices at which wool, tallow meat (frozen or otherwise), wheat, oats, barley and timber have been valued m tbe annual statements of the exports from New Zealand for the Jast ten years has been laid before the House of Representatives. Whatever may have been the object of moving for the return its contents slow m a very striking light the progress made during the ten years m question m the development of the resources of the Colony. Every article respecting which the returns were asked was valued at a lower price m 1886 than m 1879, yet so greatly has the volume of our total exports increased that their value m 1888 was £2,000,000 more than m 1879. The values of the several exports m the first and ■* it years of the period were as follows : — Wool, per lb : 1879, Is o£d ; 1888, 9d. Tallow, par cwt: 31s sd, 18s 4d. Wheat, per bushel : 4s 2d , 3s 3d. Oats, per bushel : 23 Bd, 2s. Barley: 5s Id, 8a 9d. limber, per 100 feet ; 9s sd, 8s 2d. Meats, preserved, per cwfc : 52s 7d, 39s 3d. Meats, frozen, figured m the list of exports for the first time m 1882, m which year the value was stated at 25s 4d per cwt, as against 22s 9d m 1888. It is of course m this last article of export, frozen meat, that the greatest strides have been made, the value exported m 1882 being but £19,000, compared with £628,000 m 1888. Wool was exported to about the same value m each of the two years, 1879 and 1888, but it must not be forgotten that m 1888 tho value of the wool manufactured m the colony must have reached quite £100,000, Indeed our exports of .woollens m 1888 amounted to £34,437. Tallow shows a falling off greater than is compensated for by increased production, and wheat :md barley show a reduction of both value and quantity. Tho great increase m the exportation of oats aud timber shows the value to us of the Australian market. There is a less satisfactory nv-vt to bo taken of the return. The lower prces necessitate larger quantities being exported m order to meat the liabilities of the coltny to foreign creditors, and the producers have thus not benefitted to the extent that their increased labor should have ensured, Still, that under the low scale of values of the last part of the decade, the development of the resources of the colony has been more than sufficient to keep us solvent and our credit good, is matter for congratulation, and strengthens our confidence that with improved values of our most important products a vista of national and individual prosperity is before us.

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